Ever since Hurricane Ian ravaged the region, the areas hardest hit by the storm remain on par with the third world, which is upsetting to a lot of people.
"We do not have any help in St. James City, there are so many people here that have completely lost everything like elsewhere," complained local resident Denise Martinez in a Facebook group called The Pine Island Prospect.
"As of this morning, nobody has brought in supplies besides the people trying to get to the island themselves to check on loved ones or if they still have a home. All of the people on the island need food, water, gas, propane, they do not even have a roll of toilet paper. Something needs to be done today or more people will die. It is a complete war zone down here."
Will Southwest Florida ever return to its former glory?
Another resident named Gaby Gutman Hall added her own post to the same Facebook group about how the devastation "is horrific," and that somebody needs to do something to restore the area to its former status.
"... as I learned with Hurricane Andrew the first few weeks after the storm is when people need the most help," Hall wrote.
"We are not sure why government agencies are not providing supplies even if it's temporary until residents can wrap their head around what happened and what they need to do next."
Another person named Julia Rodriguez says her 96-year-old grandmother, who did not evacuate, is still missing.
"She was living in Sunshine Mobile Village," Rodriguez wrote in the group Fort Myers Beach Island Life.
"Last we heard she was evacuating on Wednesday but haven’t heard from her. She doesn't have a cell phone. Any advice? We are very worried and live in NY."
Another nearby mobile home park was completely leveled, according to Miami native Tony Jankowski, who works at the Gasparilla Marina in Placida where upwards of 60 boats were lost during the hurricane. This does not bode well for Rodriguez's 96-year-old grandmother.
Some of the trailers landed in the marina after the storm, Jankowski said. And many of the trailer park's residents were retirees on fixed incomes.
"Back with Andrew, we had been through hurricanes before, so we knew what we had to do to prepare, and we knew to be patient after," Jankowski is quoted as saying.
"Over here on the West Coast, the best way to explain it is there are a lot of Northerners, snowbirds. A lot of people who moved here recently since COVID, who used to live in Michigan, Chicago, Minnesota, they have moved here full time, made this their home, and this is their first hurricane so they're panicking."
During Hurricane Andrew, Jankowski further explained, it was not possible to get to the stores for food for at least two or three weeks after the storm. At the time, he had to drive up to Fort Lauderdale to get supplies, then drive back down to Miami where he lived.
"Here, you have so many people that this is so new to them that they're in a panic mode," he added.
Area gas stations, Jankowski says, have lines down the street with people desperate to get just a few drops of gas. Only a few actually have power to pump, and some people are bringing along containers or buckets hoping to get as much gas as they can.
"I'm thinking, 'What are you doing? Try to save some for the rest of the people,'" Jankowski says about the selfishness he is witnessing.
The latest news about the devastation in Florida post-Hurricane Ian can be found at Collapse.news.
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